1. Call meeting to order (Craig Pecora)—Called to order at 3:50 pm. Thanks to Elpa and Dan for hosting the meeting. Dan has expanded his layout to the front yard. And, there was NO RAIN! For the last several meetings Dan has hosted there was a lot of rain!

2. Presidents opening remarks (Craig Pecora)—Craig informed the members that a long-time member and previous officer of the club passed away a couple of months ago, Ernie Mueller. Chuck Blumentritt gave an overview of the things Ernie did for the club and reminisced of Ernie at the Memorial City Mall layout.

Texas City train show—HAGG will set up for the show on Saturday, October 27th. The modules will be loaded into the trailer on Friday afternoon and set up Saturday morning starting at 8 am. There is currently some question about when the parking lot next to the Texas City Museum Showboat building will close on the morning of the show for the helicopter to land. Currently it is supposed to close at 8:30 am. If members are bringing trains to run you need to be there early to help set up and get your trains inside.

Train show planning--Craig mentioned the email he sent out with a spreadsheet about shows. He recounted that we were short people and trains at the two day Galveston show earlier this year. The purpose of the survey is to give the show coordinator an idea of who is planning to come to the show. Some planning is needed to know if we will have enough people show up and enough trains to run. It helps the show coordinator. Please complete the survey.

September meeting--Zube Park meeting last month went well. Everyone, including HALS members thought it was a good meeting. The BBQ lunch cost the club $162.45 which includes $104 we didn’t collect because a number of people were sick that weekend. Everyone notified Craig that they were not coming. The food was ordered in advance. It does not seem appropriate to charge the folks for their meals because of things that happened outside of their control.

3. Vice Presidents remarks (Jim Mitchell)—Texas City show—The show officials have indicated we cannot put any tape on the floor and we can’t put any boxes or anything in the two halls leading out to the back doors at the Showboat Pavilion.

Tomball Depot set up-HAGG is going to set up our smaller layout on November 10th at the Tomball depot for a city sponsored event. We will set up on the south side of the depot where we can get appropriate electrical connections. They will set a tent up to cover the layout and us. They will make a donation to cover our costs. We need people to learn how to set up the modules.

4. Treasurer’s Report (Charlie Caggiano). Charlie reported that we were able to recoup the $95 inappropriate use of club debit card reported at a previous meeting. The bank balance is $5,130 at the end of September. The regular recurring expense associated with storage and insurance was incurred offset by member renewals.

5. Secretary’s Report (Lisa Rickert)—not present

6. Newsletter editor’s Report (Chuck Blumentritt)—The newsletter is back! Everyone gave appreciation to Chuck for stepping up and taking over the preparation of the newsletter. He noted he needs articles in order to produce future newsletters. The next one is planned for early November. Craig is going to send articles from Piko to Chuck. Chuck got a new printer for the newsletter and the cost was very low with great clarity of the pictures.

7. Web Site (Jim Mitchell)—Jim mentioned the member only section of the website. He can provide a password for members to access. Email Jim for the password.

8. Rosenberg Railroad Museum Update (Greg Cauthen)—Thanks to everyone who helped out at the Fall Fun Fest on September 22nd. Every festival this year has under performed due to bad weather. A severe storm came out of nowhere around 2 pm. Sent everyone scrambling. Despite the bad weather the museum visitors that attended in the morning had a good time. The HALS members running their steam trains also had a good time. Thanks to Bill Courtright and HALS for participating at the event.

There is a great group of volunteers that come on Thursdays to keep the museum layout cleaned up. Thanks to them. Greg explained that there are not funds to purchase a weed eater for this group to use on the layout due to lack of funds. Jim suggested that HAGG consider purchasing a $70 weed eater for the museum.

Greg brought up the broken building that the museum has and there is no room to store it so plan to throw away unless someone wants it. Dan indicated he would like it. Greg reminded him he needed to pick it up soon.

9. Old Business—nothing to report

10 New business

a. Texas City Train Show (Jim Mitchell)—watch for an email with more information about the show.

b. Set up at Tomball Railroad Museum (Jim Mitchell) The Tomball festival is noon to 5 pm on November 10th. The goal is to have everything ready by 11 am.

c. November & December meeting place—Currently we do not have a meeting place for November or December. We can do a meeting at Rosenberg if no one else steps up.

d. Petroleum Club set up—traditionally we have set up the Friday after Thanksgiving due to the petroleum club being closed on Thanksgiving and they wanted it set up before they reopened on Friday. However since we now setup in the lobby of the building (vs the Petroleum Club) the timing should be more flexible. There was discussion on suggested dates as Friday after Thanksgiving is not convenient for many members and lots of help is needed for the set up. It was suggested that the set up be on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Chuck is going to speak with them about it.